The struggle to close the widening skills gap is a source of permanent frustration for employers.
The problem for many is that traditional approaches to filling skills gaps are increasingly ineffective.
Every company on the planet seems to be on a mission to build a superstar tech team, and that means developers, cloud specialists, and cybersecurity experts are being sought at lightning speed. degree means almost can’t hire a manager to keep up.
There is another approach to filling organizational skills gaps: upskill and retrain existing staff to take on more technical roles. There are two benefits to this approach: it not only helps employers fill gaps in their tech teams, but it also provides workers with opportunities to learn, grow, and advance. which they increasingly consider lacking when considering their career options.
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Based on Pluralsight’s State of Skills Upgrading Report 2022, 40% of technologists cited a lack of career development opportunities as a motivation for them to leave their jobs and cited a lack of opportunities to develop new skills. And yet, 87% of 7,000 respondents said they want to improve their tech skills – highlighting a huge opportunity for both employers and employees.
“Skills help people stay,” the report says. “They help them grow in their roles. And they enable you to accomplish your goals.”
The problem for employees – and by extension employers – is that other requirements often prevent employees from upskilling. Pluralsight’s report found that 61% of tech workers feel too busy to spend time upskilling – the biggest barrier to growth identified by survey respondents.
This can be seen as another effect of a skills shortage: if teams are short on staff, their resources will be stretched when trying to cover the day-to-day operations of the department. On top of that, companies often claim that they lack the budget and resources to properly invest in skills. Whether this argument holds water is debatable when you consider how much money employers are willing to throw for new hiresand the costs associated with introducing new employees and replacing those who have left.
Respondents to Pluralsight’s survey echo this view: 18% say their employers place an emphasis on hiring rather than upskilling existing talent, and the same amount indicates employers Their lack of support. Interestingly, leaders said they were even more likely to feel unsupported by their manager (27%).
The bottom line is that tech workers are more comfortable than ever with changing employers, and rightfully so: demand for their skills has skyrocketed in the two years since the business world adopted them. remote work, leaving their financial, professional and personal prospects in better shape than ever.
Employers can and should continue to hire for the skills they need, but they also need to accept that this is not the only solution available. If leaders aren’t proactively giving their employees time to train, upskill, and get better at what they do, they’re really just making a half-hearted effort to fill in the gaps. they often complain.
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